The NYT is reportingthat President Obama announced today his intent to nominate Ambassador Robert Stephen Beecroft as the next US Ambassador to Iraq following the withdrawal of his first choice, Brett McGurk in June 2012.

Ambassador Beecroft has been Chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy in Baghdad since the departure of Ambassador James Jeffrey on June 1, 2012.

Robert Stephen Beecroft, a career member of the Foreign Service, joined Embassy Baghdad as Deputy Chief of Mission on July 14, 2011. Prior to that, Mr. Beecroft served as Ambassador to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He became Chargé d’affaires upon the departure of Ambassador James Jeffrey on June 1, 2012.

Mr. Beecroft’s previous assignments include service in Washington as Executive Assistant to two Secretaries of State and Special Assistant to a Deputy Secretary of State. He has also held assignments in Department of State’s Executive Secretariat and Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Overseas he has served at the U.S. embassies in Amman, Riyadh, and Damascus. He is a recipient of the Department of State’s Meritorious, Superior, and Distinguished Honor Awards.

Before joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Beecroft practiced law in the San Francisco office of an international law firm. He holds a B.A. from Brigham Young University and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ambassador Beecroft graduated from BYU in 1983 and the University of California at Berkeley Law School in 1988. He practiced law in San Francisco for several years before joining the Foreign Service in 1994.

The August 2008 coverage of his appointment as US Ambassador to Jordan by Church News of the Church of Latter-Day Saints has additional personal details here. The Church News also covered Ambassador Beecroft’s Diplomacy for Human Rights Award on April 21, 2011 at the State Department here.